Recently, thinning and miniaturization of a semiconductor device and its package have been increasingly demanded. Therefore, as the semiconductor device and its package, flip chip type semiconductor devices in which a semiconductor element such as a semiconductor chip is mounted (flip chip-connected) on a substrate by means of flip chip bonding have been widely utilized. In such flip chip connection, a semiconductor chip is fixed to a substrate in a form where a circuit face of the semiconductor chip is opposed to an electrode-formed face of the substrate. In such a semiconductor device or the like, there may be a case where the back surface of the semiconductor chip is protected with a protective film to prevent the semiconductor chip from damaging or the like (see, Patent Document 1 to 10).
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2008-166451
Patent Document 2: JP-A-2008-006386
Patent Document 3: JP-A-2007-261035
Patent Document 4: JP-A-2007-250970
Patent Document 5: JP-A-2007-158026
Patent Document 6: JP-A-2004-221169
Patent Document 7: JP-A-2004-214288
Patent Document 8: JP-A-2004-142430
Patent Document 9: JP-A-2004-072108
Patent Document 10: JP-A-2004-063551
However, the protection of the back surface of a semiconductor chip with a protective film requires an additional step of attaching the protective film to the back surface of the semiconductor chip obtained in a dicing step. As a result, the number of the processing steps increases and the production cost is thereby increased. Moreover, the recent tendency toward thinning may result in that semiconductor chips are sometimes damaged in the step of picking up the semiconductor chips. Accordingly, until the picking-up step inclusive, semiconductor wafers and semiconductor chips are required to be reinforced for the purpose of enhancing the mechanical strength thereof. In particular, the thinning of the semiconductor chips may generate warp on the semiconductor chips in some cases, so that suppression or prevention of the generation of warp is required.